Town Guide in Guthook's App

[guthook]

Hey folks. You may have noticed that we finished adding the first round of the town guide to the AT Hiker app last month. And since this is a project that will be ongoing, I'm sure you'll have suggestions for places to add in each town, or edits that need to be made. Just to keep suggestions organized on our end, if you'd like us to include a business in a town, please send info to Susan at [email protected], or preferably get someone from the business to email her.

We're trying to keep the town guide narrowed to relevant hiker services for now, so things like resupply, lodging, dining, outfitters, libraries, post offices, and so on. We might add other things like local entertainment in the future, but for now I want to keep things simple.

Also, feel free to use the comments section on each waypoint to share your experiences, but keep it respectful. I've already had one prominent hostel ask to be removed from the app because of vulgar and hateful comments left in the app about people working there.

Thanks for your support here, and on the trail! The comments I've seen here and everyone's contacts with us through email and Facebook have been really encouraging, and we're always trying to make the app better for all of you.

[Starchild]

Hi Guthook. I Love your AT app, and was so greatly pleased to find you had one for El Camino. I used it last year from Leon to Santiago, and this year will be doing the full French Way, and looking at the Portugal way next year. I would really like to see such expansion to El Camino. Also a way of better doing alternate routes, as the Camino has many and the way the app does it really does seem like it could have been done differently, but at least you have them. Also do you have the Portugal Way, I would be looking forward to that.

[guthook]

Starchild, glad to hear you got some good use out of it on the Camino. We've been a little slower on adding more routes to our European apps because of the huge number of possibilities out there, and the relative lack of interest from hikers compared to our apps back home, but we've got some plans for the future. Unfortunately, nothing more for the Camino just yet, but hopefully we'll get there. We're planning on adding a bunch of the national trails in Great Britain in the next round, and we'll see after that. We've already got South Downs Way and West Highland Way, and will hopefully add several more before the end of the year.

[SWODaddy]

This is good news. I'm looking in my app (version 6.0.7, android ) and don't see anything new?

[guthook]

This is good news. I'm looking in my app (version 6.0.7, android ) and don't see anything new?

6.0.7... I think that's a slightly older version, but it should still have the town info. Try updating the app through the Play Store, and if the town waypoints don't show up then, give us a shout at [email protected]. That's our shared tech support email-- Alice does the android stuff and I do the iPhone :-)


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[dcdennis]

While I was out last weekend I was surprised to see an unfamiliar icon slightly off the trail and when i tapped it it said 'outfitter'. #bigsmiles

[capehiker]

I'm thru hiking now. Aside from the app itself being awesome, I really dislike the spamming of town services outside of the actual town/hostel waypoint from the business themselves. For example, it's really annoying looking at a water source waypoint for a possible update and reading about how "hostel x" will pick you up. I realize you have to adapt but perhaps you can limit the spamming from those businesses to the actual waypoint and not every waypoint within 20 miles north/south of it? I purposely have avoided Nantahala Lodge and Boots Off hostel specifically because of their spamming.

[dcdennis]

lol thats some spiteful sh1t dude.

[guthook]

I'm thru hiking now. Aside from the app itself being awesome, I really dislike the spamming of town services outside of the actual town/hostel waypoint from the business themselves. For example, it's really annoying looking at a water source waypoint for a possible update and reading about how "hostel x" will pick you up. I realize you have to adapt but perhaps you can limit the spamming from those businesses to the actual waypoint and not every waypoint within 20 miles north/south of it? I purposely have avoided Nantahala Lodge and Boots Off hostel specifically because of their spamming.

Hey Capehiker,

I actually talked with both of them about that, and explained why they shouldn't be doing that... and they understood and agreed not to spam anymore. Now that you mention it, I don't think I ever went and deleted those comments afterward. I'll go and check on that. Thanks for the reminder :-)


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[capehiker]

lol thats some spiteful sh1t dude.

Wasn't intending it to be. It gets really frustrating when planning water stops for the day and instead of recent updates on water flow, I'm being told to call for a ride at the next Gap.

[capehiker]

Hey Capehiker,

I actually talked with both of them about that, and explained why they shouldn't be doing that... and they understood and agreed not to spam anymore. Now that you mention it, I don't think I ever went and deleted those comments afterward. I'll go and check on that. Thanks for the reminder :-)


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Thanks Guthook. Like I said, your app is awesome and I love the addition of services close to the trail. It was just frustrating looking in the comments for updates on water, shelters, etc and seeing the spam.

I went back to the NOC/Fontana area on the app and it does look like a lot of spam was cleaned up. I'm telling you, when we went through that 60 mile stretch, the running joke was "don't worry about water, Nantahala Lodge will come get you instead". Lol.

[Riocielo]

Thank you so much for your app, Guthook. I have used it for every one of our section hikes.


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[SkeeterPee]

Is there a trip planning function? It would be nice to be able be at home and have the app calculate trail waypoints from a point you choose, vs what ever point is is closest to your home. That would be nice when thinking how far you will hike each day.

[Elaikases]

Hey folks. You may have noticed that we finished adding the first round of the town guide to the AT Hiker app last month. And since this is a project that will be ongoing, I'm sure you'll have suggestions for places to add in each town, or edits that need to be made. Just to keep suggestions organized on our end, if you'd like us to include a business in a town, please send info to Susan at [email protected], or preferably get someone from the business to email her.

We're trying to keep the town guide narrowed to relevant hiker services for now, so things like resupply, lodging, dining, outfitters, libraries, post offices, and so on. We might add other things like local entertainment in the future, but for now I want to keep things simple.

Also, feel free to use the comments section on each waypoint to share your experiences, but keep it respectful. I've already had one prominent hostel ask to be removed from the app because of vulgar and hateful comments left in the app about people working there.

Thanks for your support here, and on the trail! The comments I've seen here and everyone's contacts with us through email and Facebook have been really encouraging, and we're always trying to make the app better for all of you.

My wife and I have really enjoyed the App.

What was interesting in our last section hike was teaching others who had the app how to use it.

[JC13]

Just wanted to say thanks to you Guthook for the app and the recent update. Looking forward to using it this summer for our next AT section!

[guthook]

You're welcome everyone, and thanks for the support! I can't tell you how much we appreciate it :-)


Is there a trip planning function? It would be nice to be able be at home and have the app calculate trail waypoints from a point you choose, vs what ever point is is closest to your home. That would be nice when thinking how far you will hike each day.

Have you tried the custom route drawing option? That's what we use for planning purposes now, and we have some ideas for further improvements in the future...

[SkeeterPee]

You're welcome everyone, and thanks for the support! I can't tell you how much we appreciate it :-)



Have you tried the custom route drawing option? That's what we use for planning purposes now, and we have some ideas for further improvements in the future...

Works pretty well. I still calculates miles in that route section based on nearest point instead of your starting point, but I could work with it. Thank you.

[guthook]

Works pretty well. I still calculates miles in that route section based on nearest point instead of your starting point, but I could work with it. Thank you.

No problem, SkeeterPee. If you turn off the GPS, it should only measure from the start of the route, but let me know if that's not working... Also, if you want to move this conversation off the forum for tech support stuff, email works best :-) [email protected]

Cheers!